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Deep Cut: Quez (Of Travis Porter) "High Tymes"

Mixtape: Black Boe Knows 2Producer: UnknownIn contrast with Travis Porter's glory days of 2009 and 2010, 2013's Mr. Porter was a solid project that didn't seem to make too much noise; the group's been surpassed, aesthetically, even if they pointed the direction for the sound of Atlanta today as much as anyone this side of Gucci Mane. The music is still tight, though.

This is less true of the recent output of Wiz Khalifa, whose lane Quez seems to unapologetically swerving into on "High Tymes." Over a pristine-ly produced eighth-note synthesizer pattern and staggered drum figure, Quez spits a few straightforward stoner-rapper archetype verses. But his bars and songwriting relay an innocence that sees weed as a novel, escapist recreation, one that lets you transcend by floating from your troubles.

The song comes from Quez's Black Boe Knows 2, an attempt to push Quez as a solo artist and one of the best-sounding tapes released last year (he boasts over the "Spottieottiedopalicious" outro that he engineered the record himself). No, the songs aren't always entirely there, although that could be true of full Travis Porter releases at times. But in this case, the production—there are no credits available online, seemingly, although you'll hear drops from London on the Track throughout—is uniformly pretty, hooky, and expensive. Check pop-R&B slow grind "One Night Stand," which rides the best guitar figure since "X-Pill," and the sparse, creeping "My Dawgs," which includes a fire verse from Cap-1.